


fallen stars

by deathlytireddan



Series: ghosts in the telephone lines [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 01:17:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13671234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathlytireddan/pseuds/deathlytireddan
Summary: “It’s like buying airplane tickets. You’ve gotta buy them in advance, right? And this is kind of like that. Only it’s like buying an entire plane and not knowing if it’ll be gone when you get there.”





	fallen stars

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, me again. Hi. 
> 
> Warnings: swearing, general weirdness, parents fight but it’s very vague. 
> 
> You don’t have to read the first part, but it might make more sense if you do.

Dan has a ledge above his bedroom window, flatter than the rest of the roof. If he climbs out, catches his feet on the windowsill, and hoists himself up he’ll be fine.

The drop isn’t that far, and he’s done it so many times before now it’s muscle memory. 

Dan crosses his ankles. The feeling of his toes hanging over the edge and catching the summer breeze always gives him a little thrill.

The faintest edge of the Milky Way frowns down at him, disapproving. 

“Dan! Get off!”

It’s his little brother, head tilted up at him.

“Why’re you in my room?” Dan demands. 

Dan’s only eleven, but he’s learned the way his mum looks at them sternly and copies it.

“Let me up, let me up.” Adrian starts to climb up, the drop becoming a hundred foot cliff with waves crashing against rocks and the mouth of Death unhooking its jaw. 

“Don’t fall, you idiot!” Dan grips Adrian’s wrists and pulls him up. 

“I’ll tell mom!” 

“How? ‘Dan called me an idiot while we were sitting on the roof, mum!” 

Adrian laughs, loud and free. He’s so young. 

(Even then, Dan was jealous of his brother’s carefree nature. He’s always tried to copy it and rarely succeeded.)

Dan pulls him back from the edge and onto his lap, chin on his shoulder. Little brothers aren’t all that bad, sometimes. 

“They’re arguing again,” Adrian whispers, like he’s afraid their parents will hear. 

“What about?” Dan shifts, staring up at the sky. He’d like to become an astronomer, plan charts and discover the secrets of the universe, far, far away.

“I don’t know,” Adrian whines. “Mum kept talking about being in the 18–1890s?”

Oh.

It’s _that_ kind of argument. 

Dan sighs. 

“You know those tv adverts, about the phones and the money, and meeting nice people?” 

“Yeah?” 

“I think...” Dan doesn’t know how to explain. “It’s like buying airplane tickets. You’ve gotta buy them in advance, right? And this is kind of like that. Only it’s like buying an entire plane and not knowing if it’ll be gone when you get there.” 

Adrian blinks.

How do mums always explain things so well?

“There’s someone out there,” Dan looks to the sky, to the edge of disapproving Milky Way, “that’s supposed to be perfect for you. A soulmate, I think. Only they might be born in the wrong year. Different from yours. Mum said hers was from 1920–something.” 

Adrian tilts his head against Dan’s shoulder, looking up. “So dad isn’t hers?”

“No. Almost no one has theirs.”

“Is that why they argue?”

Dan swallowed. “I don’t know, Adrian. Not everyone’s parents fight? Maybe it’s for another reason.” 

“Okay.” Adrian scratches his arm. “Can I have an alien?”

Dan laughs. “Maybe. I don’t know the rules. It happens randomly. They just...come get you when it’s time. I don’t know how it works. I don’t know if anyone knows.”

“Even the people in the adverts?”

“Even them.”

Adrian thinks for a long minute. “It’s like time travel? And the...phone lines are a time machine!”

Dan hasn’t thought of it like that before. He’s been too caught up in the horror of it to ever consider the wonder.

“I guess so.” He smiles approvingly, Adrian grinning back and squeezing his hand. “It sounds cool, like that.”

It really does.

—

“It’s just some—some fucking corporation!”

“Language!” His dad snaps, even as he zips his suitcase, finds every bit of himself and removes it from their home. 

“It is! Why waste your money on something that has less than a zero chance of working!” Dan is pacing, ignoring Adrian’s sobs and his mother’s consoling words behind him. “It just ruins everything! The only reason you’re leaving is because you think there’s something better! There isn’t!” 

Dan chokes on a sob. “She’s probably in a nursing home! She doesn’t mean anything!”

His dad finally turns to look at him, properly, for the first time in a long time. “I’m leaving because this isn’t good for either of you.” His voice is calm, and hurt. Adrian runs to him, hides in his shirt. “I don’t want you two to be in this environment anymore.”

“That’s a lie!” Dan turns to his mum. “He’s lying!” 

“Daniel.” 

Dan shakes his head, pushes passed her and up the stairs, slamming his door as loud as he can. 

—

Dan pretends, for a long, long time, that he won’t ever get a call. 

Adrian is excited for it the moment their dad tells him he has a ticket, on one of the few outings they’ve had together in years. 

He goes on and on about an alien, about his perfect person. Never mind the money, never mind that it isn’t worth it, never mind the fact they’re destroying their son’s life. 

Just like they’ve already destroyed their own, just like Dan’s will be any time now.

Dan can say no. Everyone can say no.

But he knows, when it comes down to it, he won’t be able to resist. Because it’s a less than zero chance, but it is _still_ a chance.

**Author's Note:**

> :)


End file.
